British Columbia Ferry Corporation
Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal in 1984
The British Columbia Ferry Corporation or BC Ferries is the company that provides all major passenger and vehicle ferry services on the West Coast of British Columbia. Set up in 1959 to provide a substantially better service then that provided by the Black Ball Line and Canadian Pacific Railway, it has become one of the biggest passenger ferry lines in the world, boasting a fleet of 35 vessels with a total passenger and crew capacity of over 27,000, serving 48 ports-of-call along the entire B.C. coast.
In 2003, the Government of British Columbia announced that BC Ferries, which had been in debt, was going to be reorganized into a "private" company. Although it was touted as no longer being a Crown corporation, therefore in theory separated from the government and the political interference that goes with it, in fact, the single voting share is held by the BC Ferry Authority-which is effectively an arm of the Government. Critics have said that the company, however reorganized, will continue to be subject to political interference, despite the Government's assurances it will not be interfered with.
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